Government's role shouldn't be to police the world —
or even to win wars. Government's role should be to keep us out of wars— to protect us from foreign
enemies, not create them.

In fact the main reason most people tolerate high taxes and invasions
of our liberty is because they hope the government will protect them from
domestic criminals and foreign problems. And yet, despite a $2 trillion
budget, our government protects us from neither.

A libertarian foreign policy would rest on a simple principle:

We're always ready to defend ourselves, but we threaten no one.

Such a foreign policy should have four elements.

1. Non-Interference

Our government should never interfere in other countries' disputes,
never arm nor aid foreign governments, and never give terrorists a reason
to pressure our government.

When the politicians drag us off to someone else's war, they offer
plenty of reasons. The reasons usually include: stopping the conflict from
spreading, heading off the emergence of a new Hitler, protecting our
allies, doing the moral thing, and ending violations of human rights.

But rarely do they come even close to achieving any of the goals.

Any American who wants to volunteer to fight for a foreign government
or revolutionary movement, to negotiate its peace, or to send money to
help it should be free to do so. (It is currently illegal for you to help
a foreign government or revolutionary movement.) But our government should
stay out of such battles.

2. No Foreign Aid or Military Assistance

The Constitution grants our government no authority to use your money
for the support of foreign governments.

Not only is it unconstitutional, it is unfair by almost any standard.
As Fred Smith pointed out, foreign aid taxes poor people in rich countries
for the benefit of rich people in poor countries.

Foreign aid originally was justified as a way of arming countries
against Communist aggression. But Cuba, China, and Vietnam all became
Communist after receiving American money and weapons.

And so much money and military hardware have been given to Israel's
enemies that it allows the politicians to say we have to give massive aid
to Israel to keep it from being destroyed.

Every American should be free to send money or weapons to any
government in the world. But you shouldn't be taxed for the benefit of any
foreign government.

3. Security against Attack

How could the bad people of the world conquer America?

They'd have to pulverize American cities to the point that we submit to
being occupied — or they'd have to
threaten to do that.

In 1983 Ronald Reagan made the most sensible military suggestion of the
past 50 years — that America should
protect itself against missile attacks. Unfortunately, he gave the job to
the Department of Defense — which is
really the Post Office in fatigues. And so 18 years later we're no closer
to being protected than we were in 1983.

We should rely as little as possible on politics and bureaucracy to
achieve anything. The government should simply post a reward —
say, $25 billion — to go to the
first private company that produces a functioning, fool-proof missile
defense. With such an offer, we'd probably have a missile defense within
five years.

Will that make us perfectly secure? Of course not. Nothing will.

But it will make us far safer than we are today and eliminate a
principal excuse for meddling in other countries' affairs.

4. Target the Aggressors, Not the Innocent

Even with a missile defense, suppose America truly were threatened by a
foreign ruler.

A Libertarian President would target the aggressor himself. He wouldn't
order bombers to kill the aggressor's innocent subjects.

He would warn the ruler that an actual attack would trigger the posting
of a reward of, say, $100 million for the person who kills the ruler.
Everyone would be eligible to collect the reward —
including the ruler's guards and wives.

This response would spare both innocent foreigners and innocent
Americans. Only those who try for the reward would be at risk. Americans
wouldn't be drafted to fight and die invading a foreign country —
nor taxed to pay for volunteers.

This isn't a way to force dictators to change their spots or submit to
U.S. dictation. It's only a way to discourage a direct attack on America.
If the dictator withdrew his threat, the U.S. would withdraw the reward.

With a libertarian foreign policy, it's unlikely any foreign ruler
would threaten us. So such a reward probably would never be posted. But if a
foreign ruler were tempted to threaten us, the fear of
assassination would be more of a deterrence than the threat to bomb his
civilian subjects.

If you don't believe assassination is a nice way to handle this, what's
the alternative? Would you rather kill thousands of innocent foreigners
and innocent Americans?

Peace for All Time

When America can defend itself against missile attack, the politicians
will lose their best excuse for butting into the affairs of other
countries and making demands upon you.

And when our government no longer interferes in other countries with
military adventures and foreign aid, foreign terrorists will have little
reason to threaten your city.

If some foreign leader still tried to make trouble for America, we
should target the leader for assassination, not target innocent civilians
for bombing. But an American government that minded its own business and
had a secure defense isn't likely to need to resort to assassination.

The policies I've outlined are the only ones that will produce a strong
national defense, instead of a strong national offense, and leave
terrorists with no reason to attack us.

Once they're in place, we must find a way to keep politicians away from
loaded weapons forever.

Here's a start — a proposed
constitutional amendment:

Section 1.
The United States shall be at war only after a declaration of war,
naming the specific enemy nations, is approved by the President and by
a two-thirds vote of the eligible members in both houses of Congress.

Section 2. The only members of
the House of Representatives and the Senate eligible to vote on a
declaration of war are those who are between the ages of 18 and
35, or who have children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren
between those ages.

Section 3. In the absence
of a Congressional declaration of war, the President may deploy
the military to repel an invasion of United States territory, but
may not deploy troops or engage in hostilities outside the United
States.

Section 4. The United
States shall enter into no treaty with any nation or organization
if such treaty could oblige the United States to be at war without
a declaration of war by Congress, and the United States shall not
be bound to engage in war by any action taken by any organization
of which they are a member.

Section 5. Except in time
of war, as specified in Sections 1 and 2, the United States will provide
no weapons or other resources to foreign governments, will engage
in no military action outside the borders of the United States,
and shall deploy no military personnel or weapons outside the
boundaries of the United States except that at any one time up to
one thousand members of the military may be outside the United
States for no longer than thirty days.

Section 6. Upon any
violation of this article by the President, Congress shall
institute impeachment proceedings within 14 days.

Sections 3 and 5 don't preclude a missile defense or any other kind of
defense of this nation. It requires only that the President wait before
attacking a foreign nation until a declaration of war has been issued.
Even if some incapacity prevents Congress from making a declaration
quickly, America could still defend itself. It just couldn't attack anyone
else.

War is too dangerous an enterprise to leave in the hands of people who
routinely lie in their own self-interest.